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Veterans Healing Farm plans expansion

Charity plans community center made of renovated shipping containers

Funds from private donors and a local community foundation point to expansion at the Veterans Healing Farm.

The charity, which serves post-9/11 veterans and their families, plans to build a community center from renovated shipping containers thanks to a recent $25,000 grant from the Community Foundation of Henderson County.

That money, paired with an estimated $35,000 of private fundraising, will provide space on the farm for intensive educational retreats, said Nicole Mahshie, administrative coordinator at the Veterans Healing Farm. Construction should begin this spring.

The planned community center will have a bunk house, outdoor classroom space and a 20-foot commercial kitchen, Mahshie said. Veterans from throughout the country will be invited to five-day retreats where they learn everything from beekeeping to mushroom farming and holistic health.

“(The center) is going to provide a gathering space for our local community members that come to the farm, and it will allow us to launch training workshops open to veterans,” she said. “Our focus is on empowering veterans to have the ability to create a healthy and sustainable lifestyle.”

Comments(2)

sherri says

Admin says

October 8, 2016 at 4:41 pm

Sherri, we are in Hendersonville, NC however we do have plans to begin replicating our model in other cities/states in the near future. Please feel free to subscribe to our newsletter as we will be releasing additional information about this process in our future publications. Thanks, John Mahshie